Saturday, January 31, 2009

Windows Home Server


DSC_0109, originally uploaded by merritr.

I got my boyfriend an HP Media Server for Christmas. It runs with the operating system Windows Home Server. I found the software PlayOn that can serve Netflix and Hulu to a PS3, XBox, other media boxes and coming soon, the Wii. Thanks to enterprising individuals before me I easily found directions on the web to get the program loaded onto the server in order to start feeding movies and tv shows to my PS3.

Upon getting the connection going I came to the realization that my cable internet BLOWS. I have always wanted to avoid using cable service of any sort, but for internet it was really my best bet. Now streaming video to the PS3 over wifi was not the ideal setup, I will fix that by running a Cat6 cable in the near future, but that ended up being the least of my issues. When video streaming, or using any significant amount of bandwidth, my cable modem disconnects. The modem log file is filled with synchronization and downstream pulse failures. Tired of all this I have realized that Verizon Fios internet is available in my area. I will be getting it installed soon and hopefully I will be satisfied. I am really excited about finally getting a package with fast upload speeds. I am getting the 20Mbps up and 20Mbps down pacakge. Finally website management won't hog so much time, something I can't spare.